


Dropping the Quaffle

by JuweWright



Series: The Marauders Series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Marauders, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 22:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1795243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JuweWright/pseuds/JuweWright
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius and Remus are searching for James after a disastrous Quidditch match of Gryffindor against Slytherin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dropping the Quaffle

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a prompt that crossed my way on FB a while ago: "Imagine Gryffindor losing a Quidditch match against Slytherin and James hiding underneath the invisibility cloak and refusing to come out".
> 
> Also, this is dedicated to J. who is the best thing that happened to me in a long while ;-) (aye, go, boast of it...)  
> Strictly according to canon (regarding the books as canon and Pottermore as superfluous guidelines)! And also, this is the best I can do in terms of non-angsty/sad/depressing/melancholic fanfiction. I had fun writing it, so there might be more of this kind of one-shots up my sleeve.
> 
> Lastly: I don't own anything. This is just for fun and I don't get money for it. All kudos go to JKR! 
> 
> I just hope you enjoy reading it. Comment if you do!

„James! Merlin’s beard! It’s not the end of the world! No need to rush off and hide to cry in a corner like a baby. Where are you?“

Sirius Black pulled back the curtains of his best friend’s four poster bed to reveal a heap of messy cushions and sheets and an old battered copy of “Wicked Wandlore – How to stun your professor” which James had brought back from their last visit to Hogsmeade and which contained quite a number of spells that should not have been known to fifth year students but which came in quite handy when you wanted to have a bit of fun with some Slytherins – especially if one of these Slytherins was Snivellus Snape.

Sirius bent down to look underneath the bed. There was a single lost sock which had already gathered dust, a good-as-new copy of “A History of Hogwarts” and a packet of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. It was clear though, that no James Potter was to be found in or under the bed though and Sirius gave an exasperated sigh just when the door of the dormitory flew open and Remus Lupin, a disheveled looking boy with tired eyes and pale skin came in. He was still wearing a huge scarlet top hat with yellow stripes and had a Gryffindor banner lazily wrapped around his shoulders.

“Sorry, padfoot, I needed to get rid of Peter. He’s been annoying the hell out of me during the game.”  
He looked around the room.  
“So, where is he?”  
“Didn’t find him”, murmured Sirius with a frown. “I thought he would have gone up here but he… wait!”  
He jumped back to the bed again, opened the trunk next to it and filed through it. A sly grin began to spread over his face. “Okay, the cloak’s gone. That’s that riddle solved. You don’t happen to have the map with you, do you?”

Remus Lupin patted his battered robe and finally pulled out an empty-looking piece of parchment.  
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good”, he murmured pointing his wand at the map. Immediately a neat drawing of the Hogwarts grounds appeared on the surface of the document. It was a very detailed map which showed all the hidden passages and the secret tunnels to Hogsmeade. The quartet of Sirius, Remus, James and Peter prided themselves to have created the most accurate map of Hogwarts ever. The best thing about this map was the fact that it showed every single student and teacher as a moving tiny dot with their name scribbled next to it. It had been a pain to make this part of the map work but it had already served them well at many occasions. Sirius walked up to his friend and looked over his shoulder to search for the dot labelled “James Potter”.

“Okay, let’s see. So there’s a bunch of gloating Slytherin idiots having a blast in their common room. Not really a surprise. There’s Lily in the hidden classroom…” Sirius stopped dead. “Dear me, don’t tell me you’re already due again.”  
Remus shrugged, his ears turning slightly pink.  
Sirius rolled his eyes.  
“I’ve never noticed the phases of the moon before I met you, but it seems to me, that the full moon reappears much too often. I mean, I enjoy being a dog, but…”  
“You’re a lovely dog, Sirius. You’re so much kinder as a dog and you don’t talk before you think when you’re walking on four legs which is also quite nice. You should consider making the change permanent.”

Sirius watched his friend from the corner of his eye to see if he had pissed him off, but Remus looked bemused at most. Remus Lupin was a werewolf. It had not taken Sirius and James long to find out. And it had also not been very long until they had found a solution to the problem that their best friend became a bloodthirsty beast once a month. It had taken them a while to master the art, but they had managed to become Animagi and swap their human skins for animal hides whenever the need arose. They had found out that it was not purely a matter of choice which animal you became. It seemed that there was one animal that suited you. So now, every four weeks, Sirius became a dog and James became a stag and they had loads of fun with Remus, the wolf. 

The fun had only come recently though. Before that they had mainly babysat their friend and kept him away from human dwellings. But Lily Evans, one of the brightest witches in Gryffindor, had found out about a potion to make the transformation less horrible. Remus could handle the wolf better when he drank that potion, could control his mind more even though his body changed by the light of the full moon. When Remus thought back on the day that Lily had come up to him after class and handed him the flask explaining what she had done, he still couldn’t believe it. He had always liked Lily though not in the way that James liked her, who started prancing about as soon as she entered the room. But he would never have told her his secret out of fear that she would turn away from him as so many of his friends had done before. She had found out by herself though – she was incredibly smart – and had done everything she could to help him cope.

“Hah! I’ve got him!” Sirius exclaimed and pointed to a dot on the map that was sitting up on the astronomy tower. Remus sighed heavily.  
“That’s 260 Steps. Why is he always hiding somewhere high up? His Animagus should be a cat rather than a stag. He definitely shows cat-like behaviour patterns when he’s stressed.”  
He rolled up the map again, wiping it with the words “mischief managed” and followed Sirius down to the common room and out of the portrait hole.  
“Does he really think they only lost because of him?”  
“Well the whole mess started with him dropping the Quaffle in that move fifteen minutes into the game.” Sirius shrugged. “I guess you could say he lost us the match with that.”  
“I don’t even know why he dropped the ball. He never dropped the Quaffle ever before unless someone flew into him or he was badly hit by a Bludger.”  
They walked along the hallways discussing possible reasons for James playing his worst Quidditch match ever which ranged from someone from the Slytherin ranks hitting him with a Confundus charm to him seeing Lily cheering for the team in her Gryffindor robes and getting sweaty hands over that. 

“Well we will never know” said Sirius matter-of-factly. “We can only hope that Ravenclaw gives these snakes a beating in the next match so they won’t win the House Cup. I can live with Ravenclaw winning.”  
“I could live with anyone except the Slytherins winning” Remus retorted.  
Just then, they heard steps behind them. Quick, determined steps, that were quickly followed by a female voice shouting after them.  
“Remus! Remus!”  
They turned on the spot to see Lily Evans approaching them. She was still wearing the red robes she had attended the match in and had not yet taken the time to comb her hair which had been messed up by the wind. She looked – Remus had to admit that much – absolutely amazing. Her cheeks were flushed from running as she came to a halt in front of the two boys.

“Hello, Evans” Sirius said with a smile.  
“Hi Sirius. Where’s your idiot-friend?”  
“If you’re referring to him-who-might-have-lost-us-the-match-today, we’re just on our way to lure him down from the Astronomy tower before he can make is mind up and take the quick way down.”  
“Awesome, I’ll just make sure you get there late, then”, she said with a sweet smile.  
“Evans, you’re evil.”  
“Black, you’re not an angel yourself and your hair needs cutting.”  
“Could you two just stop flirting for a second?” Lupin asked.  
Both turned towards him in a single motion.  
“We’re not flirting!” they said simultaneously.

“I’ve finished the potion” Lily said kindly and handed him a small flask. A dark liquid was swirling inside it. Lupin took it carefully, unscrewed it and downed the contents with a single gulp. It tasted like ash and metal. But if it was that or losing his mind to the wolf, he preferred drinking the disgusting potion.  
“I hope it’ll work. I know you should have taken it yesterday to get the full effect but I got delayed. There was that horrible ghost from the ladies toilet downstairs.”  
“Myrtle?”  
“Yes, that one. She had a crying fit and flooded everything and then Peeves had the amazing idea of joining in and – well to cut a long story short, the sink in the secret classroom is linked to the plumbing in Myrtle’s toilet. You can add that to your map if you care. I’m really, really sorry, Remus.”

He smiled at her.  
“I’m going to be fine. Perhaps it’s going to be a bit more wolf-like this time, but anyways. I can’t thank you enough for doing this every single month.”  
“She’s in the Slug club, mind you, Moony” Sirius said smugly.  
“What do you mean by that?” Lily’s emerald eyes glinted angrily.  
Sirius leaned against the wall, arms crossed in front of his chest.  
“Well, you get everything you want from Slughorn, don’t you, being one of his favourite protégés and all? Guess it’s no big problem for you to get the ingredients you need for Moony’s brew.”  
Lily opened her mouth, but Remus pulled her away from his friend. He had seen and heard them fight so often, he was just tired of it.  
“Do you want to come with us, see how James is doing?” he asked.  
She shrugged.  
“All right”

The two boys exchanged a look. They both knew that James was infatuated with Lily, but they also suspected the young witch not to be completely immune to their friend’s charms. She hated James’s behaviour towards Snivellus, but in other moments they had both seen her suppress a smile or a laugh when James was taking the Mickey out of other people. Admittedly, they had a bet running how long it would take until she would finally fall in love with James. Remus said it would take at least one more year unless James decided to behave like an adult soon. Sirius had bet it would be a couple of months.  
“Bet they will spend Christmas together”, he used to say. Remus was quite sure that would not happen. Lily despised both James and Sirius for their devil-may-care attitude. Just a couple of days ago when they had been in the library doing research for potions, she had told him she was astonished how they had let Peter Pettigrew and him join their peer group.  
“They’re both so aloof and cool” she had said. “But then on the other hand they chose you and Peter as their friends. So there’s still hope they might not become completely idiotic arrogant gits, I guess.”

They walked up to the astronomy tower. The wind was howling just as it had been a few hours ago when the match had started. Grey clouds were rushing over the darkening sky and a chilly rain was falling.  
“He’ll get himself pneumonia up here” murmured Lily. Remus smiled. Sometimes she betrayed her Muggle background by simple remarks like that. No wizard ever got pneumonia. And if they did, there were potions and spells to get rid of it.  
“James!” Sirius shouted striding along the platform. “Now, we know you’re up here. Moony’s got the map, so you can’t hide anyway.”  
There was no answer.  
Sirius sighed.  
“Seriously James, you’re behaving like a six-year-old.”  
“Imagine that” Remus heard Lily say. “But interesting to see Black is aware of that.”  
“James! Get yourself out from under that cloak now! It’s just us. We left the Gryffindor you-just-lost-us-the-House-Cup-assassination-squad in the common room. You’re perfectly safe, unless you stay under that cloak for another five minutes. My hair’s getting curly in the rain and you know how I hate that.”  
Lily chuckled.  
Sirius looked round, suddenly grinned and added: “Oh and we’ve brought Evans along, so you better stop behaving like a child.”

There was a rustling sound and then James appeared out of thin air. His Quidditch robes were soaked . He shivered in the cold and looked completely and utterly miserable.  
“Awesome” said Sirius. “Now will you come down with us, will you?”  
“I’m not going into the common room.”  
“You will have to face them anyways” Remus retorted. “And you’re not the first Chaser who ever lost the Quaffle.  
“But I am the first Chaser who lost the Quaffle which then led to Slytherin scoring one goal after the other. I mean, we couldn’t even have won if we had caught the Snitch instead of them! They were leading 200 to 30.”  
Sirius pushed his friend towards the staircase. Remus saw Lily shift from one foot to the other. With an annoyed headshake she drew her wand and conjured a stream of warm air drying their clothes on the go. He noticed how much time she spent on James’s robes. Perhaps he would be losing that bet after all. At least he’d only have to buy Sirius two packs of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans and a Butterbeer in Hogsmeade if he did. Dang it, if his two best friends finally managed to become a couple he’d happily buy a packet of dog biscuits on top of that. 

Just when he had finished that thought, Sirius and James stopped dead in the hallway. Remus, following their gaze, saw the dog biscuits vanish into thin air. A trio was walking up towards them. They were all wearing Slytherin robes and their faces were all too familiar.  
“Look whom we have here” said Mulciber with a crooked smile.  
“Looks like James Potter the Quaffle-dropper” Avery chimed in.  
The third Slytherin student was staring at Lily and at Lily only. Remus noticed that Severus Snape did not look too happy with the situation. He and Lily had been friends before they had come to Hogwarts. Their being sorted into different houses had not changed anything about their relationship, but Severus’ choice of friends had had Lily screaming at him more than once. She despised Avery and Mulciber. At the same time Severus despised James and Sirius who used every chance they got to torment him. None of the compassion they showed towards Remus or Peter was ever lost on Severus Snape.  
And it only needed a badly rhymed insult from one of the trio to have James and Sirius recall all the spells they had learnt from “Wicked Wandlore”. The first curse rebounded off the wall and left a three-inches-deep hole behind. Remus and Lily retreated step by step, unable to go away, unable to turn their gaze, unable to speak… until James cast a spell that sent Severus Snape flying through the hallway until he crashed into one of the suits of armour. With a clatter it fell down on top of him, burying the boy underneath.

“Stop it!” Lily cried out, her voice rising above the tumult. She drew her wand, pointing it at Avery. “Expelliarmus!”  
Avery’s wand flew away and landed next to Snape’s unmoving feet.  
“Hey tanks, Evans!” James cried, just when she turned around and stunned him using a silent spell and a minimal wave of her wand. Two seconds later, Sirius was sporting a very impressive laceration on his forehead from where he had collided with the wall and Mulciber was hanging in the air upside down looking stupid.  
Lily ran over to Severus, who was trying to free himself from the coat of armour. With a wave of her wand, she shoved it aside and held out a hand to help him up.  
“Come on!” she commanded. “Let’s get away from here.”  
She glanced back at Remus over her shoulder mouthing “Good luck!”, before she dragged the Slytherin boy around the corner.  
“Smashing girl” stated James when the stunning spell wore off.  
“Amazing” said Sirius touching his brow and then frowning at the blood on his fingertips. “Guess she’s not going to date you any time soon though. Not after you hurt her precious Snivellus again.”  
Just at that moment, the Levicorpus spell wore off, too and Mulciber landed in their midst with a loud thud.  
Remus pulled out the Marauder’s map checking it quickly.  
“Dumbledore’s approaching”, he said. “Oh and Slughorn as well. So, James. Face the common room or face the fury of the headmaster and the gloating of Slytherin’s head teacher?”  
“Common room” James murmured and they sprinted down the hallway as fast as they could.


End file.
